Council's transportation chair wants city to study light rail

Add the chairman of the City Council's transportation committee to the growing list of those urging New York City to consider building a light rail system.

Tracks, right-of-way signs, storage rails, entirely new and costly infrastructure — those are just a few of the expensive components the city would have to build to create such a system.

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So for now, responding to an idea that has been floated in different incarnations for many years, Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who chairs the transportation committee, wants the Department of Transportation to study whether such a project would be feasible.

“This is not a new idea in New York City,” Rodriguez told POLITICO New York. “There have been advocate groups and others who have wanted the city to install a light rail corridor around 42nd Street in Manhattan and other areas. This is an effort to begin a discussion about an alternative way to improve transportation in New York City."

Building a light rail system in the already crowded streets of Manhattan would be no small feat.

Rodriguez’s bill would direct DOT to begin a one-time study to build the rail, include recommendations for how to do it, and if it would help to increase mass transit in areas of the city that are currently underserved by other forms of public transportation.

“That system would allow pedestrians to use the light rail to transport to other places and in areas that are isolated and not connected with trains, and that can benefit them,” Rodriguez said.

Different versions of the streetcar idea have come up in recent years.

One of the most discussed is the possibility of installing a low-floor light rail line running river-to-river along 42nd Street within a landscaped pedestrian boulevard. As imagined by Vision42, a citizens' initiative to re-imagine and upgrade surface transit in Midtown Manhattan, a light rail along 42nd Street could serve as a prototype for a whole network of light rails around the city.

And this past June, an advisory committee of some of the city’s more prominent developers, transportation experts and community organizers got together to study the economic impact of a streetcar connecting Brooklyn’s Sunset Park to Astoria and Queens.

Rodriguez said he’s not committed to idea of the light rail in a specific area. First, he wants to learn what it would cost and how long it could take to build, and what the actual benefit of the project would be for the city’s commuters.

“The whole idea is to get DOT to conduct the study. Based on the study, we will have a better idea on the feasibility of bringing in a light rail. I do not want to jump into conclusions about any particular area,” Rodriguez said.

Rich Barone, director of transportation programs at the Regional Plan Association, said the idea is worth studying, but the question will be whether a possibly massive first investment will be worth it in the long run.

“A light rail in the city is something that is reasonable and could be explored, but we have to consider the cost, and consider the infrastructure you would have to put in to support the service,” Barone said.

As Barone pointed out, it could be more economically feasible for the city to expand its bus rapid transit lines across the city, given the existing infrastructure to store and maintain buses and the cheaper price tag of the equipment compared with that of building a light rail.

Despite that, Barone also suggested the light rail option could actually be cheaper for the city in the long run.

“I do think that we shouldn’t limit ourselves in New York," Barone said. “We do have corridors that have enough demand. The question is whether we think the cost is worth it in the long run. The light rail can be cheaper in terms of operating costs in the long run. I think that’s where I agree with a feasibility study to see if the numbers could work out.”

The bill will be formally introduced at the City Council’s stated meeting on Thursday.